Deal could bring water to Navajo, Hopi homes

Thousands of people on the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations would gain access to running water under terms of a proposed settlement in a decades-old dispute over the rights to Arizona's water resources.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., introduced the settlement Tuesday from the floor of the U.S. Senate, calling it inconceivable that in 2012, members of the two tribes still must haul water in tanks and barrels just to meet their daily needs.

His legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would authorize spending more than $300 million on three groundwater-delivery projects on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. In exchange, the two tribes would give up their claims to water in the Little Colorado River system, giving towns and farmers on the river certainty about their water supplies.

The agreement is a scaled-back version of earlier proposals that failed to win tribal approval. It does not settle tribal claims on the main Colorado River and does not include the much more expensive pipeline from Lake Powell to the western edge of the Navajo reservation that was in earlier proposals. But Kyl said the proposal offers the best chance of success among the state, local, federal and tribal entities that must approve it.

"It brings us one step closer to addressing the significant water needs of impoverished areas on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, while also providing certainty for non-Indian communities trying to plan for their water future," he said.

The proposal looks much different from the 2004 settlement with the Gila River Indian Community and several other tribes. That agreement allocated a significant amount of water from the Colorado and Gila rivers to the tribes, with the promise of aid to build infrastructure. This one provides the infrastructure to use existing groundwater supplies.

The Navajo and Hopi tribal councils must now approve the agreement, along with various city councils, water providers and Congress.

Time is short if Kyl, who is retiring, is to win approval in Washington before his term ends Jan. 3. He must persuade his colleagues in the Senate to spend the money needed to build the promised water projects and then make the same case in the House, where there is likely to be opposition to the cost.

The deal, agreed to after years of mostly closed-door negotiations, has already angered tribal activists, who say Navajo and Hopi leaders should not give up their rights to rivers that flow through the reservations.

Jihan Gearon, executive director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, told the Associated Press Tuesday that the advocacy group wouldn't support the proposal because it means losing rights to surface water without assured funding to use the groundwater.

"As every Navajo knows, you can't drink paper water," she said.

The two tribes could have pursued rights to the Little Colorado, but without the money to store and deliver the water, any victory would have meant little. The settlement gives the tribes greater ability to tap two large aquifers that sit beneath the reservations and, if Congress will approve funding for three planned projects, a way to use the water.

The legislation introduced Tuesday would authorize funding for the Leupp-Dilkon and Ganado groundwater projects on the Navajo reservations and the Hopi groundwater project serving the Hopi Villages. Those alone are expected to cost as much as $315 million.

Kyl said he asked negotiators to significantly reduce the cost of the agreement. Earlier versions would have required as much as $800 million, in part to build a pipeline to deliver Colorado River water from Lake Powell. That project was removed from the deal and, as a result, Kyl said, the negotiators were unable to settle claims on the main Colorado River. Kyl's bill allows those talks to continue.

The settlement would also provide benefits to others across northern Arizona, including towns and water users along the Little Colorado who have faced the threat of lawsuits or other legal actions as long as the two tribes maintained their claims on the river.

Dave Roberts, senior director for water resource management at Salt River Project, said certainty is vital for water providers. SRP, which has been at the table for most of the state's tribal water settlements, draws water from the Little Colorado system for two power plants and for its Cragin Reservoir outside Payson.

Flagstaff would gain needed certainty for its plans to import water from the Red Gap Ranch outside Winslow. The city purchased the ranch for its groundwater supply, but the land sits next to the Navajo reservation, and its water was the subject of dispute. The settlement sets aside water for the project.

Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler said that while the agreement secures the city's future groundwater supplies, its significance is far greater for the region.

"If the tribes are going to achieve that next level of success, it's necessary to have a secure water supply," Presler said. "In more urban areas of Arizona, we're excited to see a new business open up, but we're not asking the very basic questions of, 'Do we have enough water to deliver to that business?' "

The agreement will also make available 6,411 acre-feet of water from the state's Colorado River allocation for use on the eastern Navajo reservation, near Window Rock. The water was originally set aside in the more sweeping 2004 water settlement act.

But the allocation will come with conditions. The Navajo tribe must work to ensure the long-term operation of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page, a power plant that sits on tribal land and runs on tribal coal.

The plant's owners are working to extend the land lease and other operating agreements and that process must be completed before the Colorado River water will be allocated to the tribe. That allocation is not related to the long-term claims on the main Colorado supply.

Kyl said the power plant is critical because it provides a low-cost source of power to move water from the Colorado River through the Central Arizona Project Canal, which supplies cities in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, as well as other Indian tribes.